KUALA LUMPUR: National squash team dropout Darren Pragasam performed well in two recent tournaments in Europe to prove a point.
The World N0. 130 Malaysian first won the Lexden RFC Open in England last week before reaching the Odense Open semi-finals in Denmark.
Darren, who was axed from the national team in January, suffered an 11-5, 11-5, 11-7 defeat to England's seventh seed Declan James on Friday.
En route to the semi-finals in Denmark, Darren upset fifth seed Lwamba Chileshe of New Zealand (11-6, 11-8, 11-8) in the second round and second seed Ivan Perez of Spain (9-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-6) in the quarter-finals.
National coach Ajaz Azmat stressed that Darren was dropped from the Malaysian team after six years due to his poor record in PSA Tour tournaments.
"However, I am impressed with Darren's performance in Odense. Despite being seeded ninth, he defeated two higher-ranked players to reach the semi-finals.
"He has done well to respond after being axed from the team. He will be considered for the national team again if he continues to perform well."